ESL Saigon

Authorities in Vietnam has started deporting foreign teachers working on tourist visa

Somebody commented on one of my YouTube videos that there are some posts on different forums around the web stating that foreign teachers were deported for working on tourist visa. Here is the comment:“Hello, I have a request. I have been reading around the web and found out that the authorities in Vietnam has started deporting foreign teachers working on tourist visa. Have seen a few comments from people who mention this on a few forums. How will I be sure that I won’t be deported? Please answer this question.”

Yesterday, I went to immigration department to extend my visa and I asked someone who is knowledgeable enough to comment on this matter.

Nobody ever heard about deporting foreign teachers from Vietnam for working on tourist visa. There is no such thing. Vietnamese authorities made it a little bit more difficult for foreign teachers to teach in Vietnam; it is more expensive to extend the tourist visa, and you have to leave Vietnam and come back in order to get a new visa, but there is no such thing as deportation.

If somebody is deported from Vietnam then he or she is deported for other reasons, not for working on tourist visa. If Vietnamese authorities see this as a problem (foreign teachers working on tourist visa), then the problem can be solved easily. You won’t be allowed to extend the tourist visa, most of the countries around the world won’t extend your tourist visa, or the price will be so high that it won’t worth working in Vietnam any more.

At this moment, foreign English teachers work in Vietnam on tourist visa without any problem. When will this change? I don’t know! Hopefully never!